Overview

Created by Sega, Astal was meant to be a showcase of the Sega Saturn's 2D capabilities. It features large, colorful sprites, and detailed background artwork that appears to have been hand-painted. Unfortunately, Astal's release came at a time where the gaming market was moving towards 3D graphics with Sony's Playstation console, resulting in poor sales. Due to the poor sales of the game, it is considered to be somewhat of a rarity in certain circles.

Astal Punch!

You play as namesake character Astal. Astal's primary method of attack is to grab enemies directly infront of him and throw them over his shoulder. By jumping in to the air and attacking, Astal slams his fists downward. Pressing down and attacking will cause Astal to violently punch the earth, stunning all enemies on screen. As a final method of attack, holding up on the D-pad will cause Astal to enhale large quantities of air, which can be released by pressing the attack button. A fully charged gust of wind can kill lesser enemies and stuns larger ones. After rescuing a small bird in the first level, Astal can command it to do various tasks for him, such as fetching extra health when needed, or attacking enemies. By plugging in a second controller, Player 2 is given control of the bird.

Plot

"Help me, Astal!"

Somewhere in the universe, the Goddess Antowas created a world using only a single jewel. This world was known as Quartilia, and to inhabit this lonely world, Antowas created two humans: from a red jewel, a boy, named Astal; and from a green jewel, a girl, Leda. Leda was blessed by Antowas with the gift to create life, and it was Astal's job to protect Leda from any dangers. Despite Astal's sometimes over-protective nature, Leda fell in love with Astal. Content with her creation, the Goddess Antowas slept. Seeing his opportunity, the evil demon Gerado attempted to conquer Quartilia as his own; but Astal and Leda resisted his efforts. To help with this task, Gerado created his own human: Geist. Geist kidnapped Leda, and imprisoned her at the bottom of the Ocean. Astal fought bravely to rescue Leda, but in doing so, he shattered the bottom of the ocean, destroying it. The battle between Astal and Geist eventually woke Antowas, who fought Gerado and won. Angry with Astal for ruining the ocean, Antowas banished him - but Leda took pity on Astal, and gave him her necklace. With the matter of Astal and Gerado settled, Antowas went back to sleep once again. Unable to stand being separated from Leda, Astal shatters his bonds and frees himself from the realm Antowas had banished him to, only to return to find Leda has once again been kidnapped. Astal's quest to rescue Leda begins once again...

Levels

Stage 1: The Journey Begins

Stage 2: Into the Darkness

BOSS: The Evil Eye

Stage 3: The Deep Forest

Stage 4: The River of Dreams

BOSS: The Forest Fiend

Stage 5: Volcanic Valley

BOSS: The Guardian of Fire

Stage 6: Sea of Clouds

Stage 7: Glacial Rift

Stage 8: The Crystal Palace

BOSS: Frostbite

Stage 9: Plains of Destiny

BOSS: Destiny Unfolds

BOSS: The Fight for the Future

Trivia

Astal made frequent cameo appearances in Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, as cover artist Patrick Spaziante was a big fan of the game and the character.

The North American Box for Astal contains an oddity among Sega Saturn titles: the spine for the game case is blank. Most game cases feature the game's logo on the spine, but Astal's is blank.

Putting the Astal disc in to a CD player reveals a bonus music track: A vocal version of the game's main theme song, "Let Me Try Again", sung in Japanese.

Hidden deep within the art files for Astal are sprites for Nintendo mascot Mario, drawn in the Astal visual style. These were most likely used as early test graphics.

All english voices in the game are provided by Lani Minella, who voiced numerous other Sega characters, such as Rouge the Bat.

Thanks, we're checking your submission.

Whoah, whoah... slow down there.

Thanks! Your changes are live!

Some of your changes are live

Because you're new to wiki editing, we sent your
submission off to our moderators to check it over. Most
changes are approved within a few hours. We'll send an
email when it is.

Once you've earned over points you'll be able
to bypass this step and make live edits to our system.
Until then, gain points by continuing to edit pages.

No changes were submitted, nothing was done! Please make changes to the wiki!

Thanks for continuing to improve the site. Some of your changes are
now live. However, some of your changes were sent to moderation because you do not
have enough points to make those live edits. You need points to
live edit the changes you commited.

For the changes that went through, our robot math gave you points for this
submission.

Thanks for continuing to improve the site. Your changes are
now live. Our robot math gave you points for this
submission.